🏀 KuBuckets Archive

At what point do you get to your 7th three pointer, after already missing your first 6, and think, taking this shot is the best way to help our team? We're going to need Svi big time this year, he's gotta be more consistent. Svi usually ends up a lot of possessions when he's in the game, so we need him to be on. He took the most shots on the team but played the third most minutes. RCJH

Not too many questions about who will get their minutes. I don't think anyone will say this team doesn't have the potential to make a Final Four run.

Sometimes on this board we hype ourselves up quite a bit in the offseason, envisioning that everyone will have turned the corner and developed into their potential finally and at last.

As an exercise, what if the role players stay as role players without improvement, Devonte doesn't fill the hole left by Frank, Malik hasn't improved since Miss St, Doke can't stay out of foul trouble and Preston still needs another year in the system? Well then I think we'll have trouble getting past the sweet 16.

However, and thankfully, i think it's unlikely that everyone will have plateaued. I personally don't expect big gains from Svi, Devonte, or Preston. If Devonte stays as last years Devonte, that's still pretty great. I'm thinking Vick, Malik and Doke have the biggest growth. Can't wait to see what happens.

Hmm how did he only get 22 min a game at W&L? Looks like he gets a few offensive rebounds every game, that bodes well.

I'm not saying I'm not impressed by him but this video looks like he's just so much bigger than everyone that he makes it look too easy! I suppose making it look easy is hard to do though :)

Relatedly, would love to hear from any players from KU that left early that went undrafted and ask them if they had any regrets about leaving early.

How could a year in the D-League possibly compare to another year at KU? I'm asking the question in a leading fashion, but the truth is I don't know the answer.

It's going to take a pretty stellar recruit to crack the starting lineup this coming year. Lawson's are going to bail us out in 2018-2019, without them we'd have a lot less experience returning (especially if Malik leaves).

Thanks for putting in chart form.

"Fully agree that this is best. Best for KU and best for Bragg."

I respectfully disagree. I think what would be best is for him to get his head on straight, embrace his job like never before and prove that he can handle the adversity instead of running from it. If we believe that KU is the best at developing ball players, then it goes that his best shot is at KU. Sometimes starting over at the same place you're at (aka the best basketball program in the nation) is better for both personal and athletic growth.

Unfortunately, we don't know what conversations transpired during the season and what exactly led him to this point. At what point did he do irreversible damage to his athletic tenure at KU?

Basketball players are allowed to make mistakes, and we all know Bill Self is interested in mentoring these youngins through them. The players have to uphold their end of the bargain by working hard and being a good teammate. Will Bragg have solved all of his problems just by transferring? Will he start working harder and being a better teammate (staying out of trouble) at the next stop? We'll see. Either way, best of luck. Wish you had made different decisions that would have made it easier for you to stay at KU.

How do people forget how to play basketball? I understand offensive slumps, but rebounds and defense are hustle and willpower right?

My prediction for the season (Based on just my own musings) is that self widdles down his bigs to four by the end of the season and two of the 6 get turned into spot minute players with a minimal role, especially in close games. Self will keep playing all the bigs against nonconference chumps but not when it comes to the big games. Which two of the six though? Perry, Cheick, and Bragg will get minutes this year, he's not keeping those boys out even though the freshman have to develop. Some combo of Lucas, Jamari and Mickelson will be seeing a lot more bench time. Self has a soft spot for Jam but I'm guessing Jam and Mickelson lose out this season, and it's really unfortunate that upperclass bigs with a lot of heart will have to lose out. Just my $0.02, as we all know Self likes an 8-9 man rotation, althought I doubt we see less than a 10 man rotation in any game this year. RCJH.

PS- good thing Self is the one getting paid to make the tough decisions and not me. Although, if you gave me a coupla million, I wouldn't mind making those tough decisions either :)

Great post HEM! Self, please reinvent yourself! The best players should play! It's a tough call with Perry sometimes, as he can be great, but other times he can be very average (vs tall and strong), hoping Self can figure out a way to use him and the team more effectively in these situations. RCJH

I remember Self saying Jamari gets playing time because of his intangibles not because of his box score. Something to do with everything he does away from the ball. I would guess Self likes him for his toughness and hustle, and expects Jamari to set the tone for other bigs when they come in. I would be Self starts Jamari for most of non-con before someone else with more offense gets the start. Doesn't really matter who starts but who gets the most minutes right?

Was super super excited to watch Diallo. I love guys with that much energy, you just want to root for them. His box score was great in the second half, but more than that, just liked that he has a motor that no other big on the team has. He definitely looked bright eyed and bushy tailed. Go Cheick! Hoping he doesn't just have this one season in Lawrence :(

I don't quite frequent the boards enough to know the state of the K-Union regarding playing time philosophy, but a couple questions come to mind as we get through the meat and potato's of conference season.

Is big Cliff not ready yet for playing time? He's putting up pretty good per minute numbers right (stats a la JNewell), but still only getting 20 mpg. Is he not passing the eye test yet? Will we see him break into 30mpg anytime soon- perhaps lingering back problems?

Along a similar line, how much of Perry's funk is just a funk? Self is very high on him and he still gets his 30mpg good or bad. Does Self limit his playing time ever until we see super aggressive Perry? Also, as an aside, I'm not as big of a fan of describing Perry's play as lacking energy. Although I do recall a few games when he did look a little sluggish, that's not quite my beef with his play when he's slumping. Super aggressive Perry may be better at rebounding, but also seems to throw up a lot of spin move shots that don't really... have a shot. Would love me some more intuitive/high IQ Perry for the rest of conference ball! Obviously, energy is still a big part of playing well, I'm just making the point that I don't want it to translate to poor shot selection for the sake of being aggressive.

Self was very high on Wayne before the year started, touting him as one of the best in practice, and Wayne is playing very well. Is the ceiling a lot higher for him? We haven't seen too many break out games from him this year and we are 16 games into the season. Does he have potential to go off for 30+ points? I think he does! Just haven't seen it yet though.

This will be a tough game at ISU, at the start of a tough 3 game stretch. Hoping we can go 2 for 3 and end up 5-1 or better. RC.

Return of the lob! Love that Self is adapting. I mean, if the strategy he had working was doing him wonders for 10 years +, I understand why it would be hard to change his game plan. We have some pretty darn athletic dudes with great basketball instincts, but the first half of the season they didn't show that basketball IQ. Guys are looking more comfortable, you could see it when they starting running the ball more. Why is it KU looks so uncomfortable in half court offense sometimes (and has for years, not just this year).

Was great to see us give another team a thomping, going to appreciate these games so much more now that they're not as regular.

PS- Maybe we should try pack line defense a la UVA? :) (Shameless, but I live in Charlottesville...)

Keep the centers/power forwards coming! glad to see Texas losing at home, if we don't win the big 12 and Texas does, would hate to think we were a Myles turner away from winning. Come on self, get us one more big!

Traylor played like the man we thought he could be! Frank mason is my MVP of this team- he's always doing something good. Gonna be huge if we get Devonte back. I think a loss in this game might have elicited probably unreasonable doom and gloom for this young team, or maybe just for the fan base. Good thing we won!

We don't normally talk about a players confidence- you guys really think Perry confidence could be hurting? Some of these guys are getting pretty seasoned you would hope.

So this is a little off topic but I was at the UVA vs Harvard game today and saw a team play brilliantly both on offense and defense. Virginia has four juniors that get the bulk of the playing time and touches, and it was very clear that they knew where they were supposed to be all the time. The best part is, they keep playing defense even with a big lead.

As we head into our last bit of non-conference schedule, my wishes for the next few games are to close out Temple, UNLV and Kent State with 6 solid halves of high IQ bball, sharp defense and low turnover rate. I remember the first half of the Utah game where the Jayhawks played aggressive defense- they stuck to their man's bodies like glue, they were very active and up in their bitnit. The second half of that game it was like they got bored of defense and were complacent to give them space. The second half of the Lafayette game seemed the same way, and they let them take perimeter shot after shot. Of course, Utah and Lafayette had their moments, and KU's defense is by no means terrible, but I think they've got it in them to do it better! It could be too hard to say if this team has made some strides playing <> outside/in ball, but I think we've probably got even more to gain on the defense side.

RCJH

Was pleased that Self was loose enough to try different lineups tonight. No doubt he'll tighten it way up for tougher games. Were so deep at the wing, was fun seeing svi, oubre and Selden all out there together. That's some length!

Agree! Really pleased with Hunter for his game today. His hands are better than Lucas'. I thought he would be in the rotation given he had all last year to sit out and learn the system and is now a junior. Hope he gets the chance to develop more. Oubre of course looked like a kid in a candy store getting his touches tonight. Fav play of his was the steal he took down for a dunk. Should have given Cliff more of Ellis' minutes. Now if only we knew how to defend the perimeter.

I'm not entirely fluent in basketball speak but I think when we had strong inside post players our style of play is the safest bet. Bill Self wants the team to take a high percentage of shots at the rim where the shots are supposedly easiest to make, and additionally, you generally have a better chance of getting to the foul line if you drive it inside. So hi/lo is just basically a safe bet offense? Combine this with stellar defense and you've got a recipe for consistent success. However, as per the Newell article, if our 2pt shooting % is abysmal, then something needs tweaking!

@DanR ah good catch. Whatever they've been doing to practice free throws over the last 2 weeks they should do for general offense- ha.

Woah, was hoping for a satisfying win to get me pumped. Game left a bad taste in my mouth. Our offense turns into lets just pass it around the perimeter for a while then someone gets the gumption to run into their bigs and throw up a prayer that gets blocked or rattles hard off the hoop. I know we play the high-low, but man we go through stretches where it doesn't seem like it's a strength of ours.

Was very pleased we got the dubya, of course, Hopefully these guys can get some rest over the next 10 days before the next game, I would imagine we're pretty beat up. In a way, it's probably not a bad thing that we had to win ugly with this big break, keep everybody on their toes at practice.

Robert Carter Jr. 11 pts/ 8 rebounds in 27 mpg. Sounds like a guy who will be able to contribute, especially with another year of growth. I say sign him up! My thought would be he would outperform most freshman we could recruit by the time he gets to play in the 2015-2016 season anyway, so don't see anything but a positive!

Curious- why was this kid not on the recruiting radar before? Did he not open himself to be recruited or did we just not know about him? Such a sudden move, Bill!

Kind of related- isn't it Bill Self's way to just fill the roster instead of saving scholarships for more talented players in future seasons? Haven't we picked up a few 3 star players here and there because we had open spots after potential recruits decided against KU?

I wonder if there's wisdom here? Given how often Self will lose 2-5 rotation players a year, is it better to have the bodies NOW than to have non-guaranteed bodies in the next year? This type of philosophy may not be especially relevant to this years team given our depth, but then again we did just lose Tharpe and AW3 to transfer in what was a crazy week. Who could have ever thought at the beginning of last season that Tharpe was going to transfer at the end of the year?? The KU roster is very fluid! For all we know, we could see a Devonte or Lucas or CF transfer if their playing time never meets their expectations.

@HighEliteMajor good post!

I would love to be a fly in the wall for those conversations Self might have had with AW3 or BG, or even Oubre (ok, with EVERYBODY, ha).

I wonder if BS played BG over AW3 last season because he already made up his mind that one of them had to stay and BG had more upside, or if he just thought BG was playing better and wasn't thinking of the off-season consequences of his actions. So for Bill Self was it an ugly necessary choice consciously made in the middle of the season, or did it happen just at the end of the season here?

Darn! Always thought AW3 could have filled in OK if he was given the minutes. I'm sure he'll make some team really happy. It's too bad we'll lose a guy with tremendous work ethic. I think he'll do just fine, and hopefully can put himself on a tournament team that needs a good wing.

I think the primary roster question is which freshman will start?

I would think Alexander would start. Oubre...maybe! But Devonte? Less likely than Oubre, right?

I think most intriguing is whether or not Oubre will beat out BG/AW3 for the 3 spot. Is it a given or still up in the air? Can he play with all that talent and still make good decisions to keep him in the game?

Hmm, why is it that KU has no recruits in the '15 class yet? I know it's early, but is it just because we have a decent amount of top 50 talent already and people want to see who's leaving first?

How many schollies will we have available? Oubre + Cliff + This years open scholarship = 3. However, none of these are guaranteed openings, especially if Self fills that last scholarship this year. With that open scholarship given to a walk on, and if Oubre and Cliff stay (which would be awesome), we'd have a recruiting class of 1 next year.

I agree with several posters that Tharpe will have a great year. Why? Because he's gotta! Play your tail off next year or sit the bench. Team has more intrasquad competition than last year.

I hope he comes to KU, gets some good playing time, stays for his sophomore year then goes lottery.

I love the Frankamp stat where he had like 100+ minutes played without a turnover at the end of the season. I will be excited if he gets more playing time just so that we don't see as many turnovers. Not sure if this is a good way to thing about it, but if a player makes 2-3 less turnovers per game, and assuming the other teams scores 1 PPP, you should give them a +3 for the game and should help make up for defensive deficiencies on their end.

@HighEliteMajor there are so many factors, and I don't know what he prioritizes. Maybe he bought into the system and truly believes he'll have his time to shine if he's good enough, or maybe even as I type this he is contemplating leaving. If Oubre leaves after one year and we don't get another 3, we could see him getting some great playing time in 2016, battling it out with Greene. If his overall goal is the NBA, he'll have to be better than BG to get drafted. At the same time, maybe he does need to go somewhere else and get 30+ mpg for his sake. My perspective is just as a selfish fan who wants to see good athletes stick around. I will add, I see AW3 having a good go of his collegiate career, and won't just transfer and get lost in the merry go round a la Anrio. What would his transfer options be like? Would he be able to land on a tournament team? What's to guarantee he would start there and not be beat out for minutes or over recruited? I'm not sure what the transfer landscape is like. What if he also ended up being the star at Washington State University but never got to compete for a national championship? I really have no clue, I have no read on these talented athletes who are adored by tens of thousands of fans.

@icthawkfan316 I totally get it, AW3 is in a tough spot right now. It is unfortunate, if he leaves I wouldn't blame him either. Maybe he works his ass off again and beats BG for the starting spot his senior year? Maybe not. But for sure he isn't guaranteed to star with Oubre around, so that is at least one year coming off the bench. I know part of the reason KU reloads every year isn't solely because the bench guys got so much better from year to year, but it's because they finally get their chance to get enough minutes to show it. This might be the case with AW3 as well. As a philosophy though, I think having these top 50 prospects sticking around for 4 years would be tremendous for the program, and I think with this frosh class of WS/BG/CF/FM maturing and sticking around for at least a little bit, we have some good years to come.

I haven't posted on here in a while, but it was interesting to see how much posters have learned from this past year at KU. This past year was experimental, playing with so much young talent was new to Bill Self and also for us, as fans. Our expectations were ENORMOUS for this team, and now they are so much more tempered. This is of course, speaking in generalities, this season is one data point, really. The freshman experiment could work, perhaps with different skills and talents, to produce a more favorable outcome. However, the NCAA tournament shouldn't be the end all be all, great teams will always lose, any team can get hot at any point and play beyond their seed.

Talking about AW3 staying until the end of his career is exactly what KU needs though, more than an available scholarship to give to a freshman. KU had a HUGE recruiting class last year, Wigs/Selden/CF/FM/BG/Embiid. Holy cow. But I think the real value of this class will be Selden/CF/FM/BG, these guys who can give us a few years, even 4 years. Selden may go after his soph campaign, but he may not. The problem this year was we barely had any seniors who could play (Besides Tarik!). Heck, we barely had any juniors (Tharpe). If each class were to have two or so highly skilled but not NBA ready 4 year guys, I think KU is going to really take off, and also, be more fun to watch because there will be less boneheaded mistake. I will put it out there that I think this will be the worst season we have for the next 3 years (and it wasn't even too shabby).

Before this season started I didn't think Lucas would see ANY playing time because of our depth, but there was a need for him. The same will happen with AW3, he'll be called on. Same thing for many of the bench players. Even Lucas is better off staying at KU. It's coming together, and I don't think we have to be as tempered with our expectations for the next few years.

How is it that Embiid's biggest point total is only 18? Jaybate mentioned when will Wiggins get 40, but I think the stars could align for Embiid to get 30+ by working the paint and getting a ton of free throws and a few J's.

Joel is getting quite the hype this week. Blocking 13 shots in 2 games is real man stuff. He really altered the game on defense against Ok St. Our team is a lot better with a big man shot blocker. As a fantasy question of sorts, who would you rather have suiting up for the next game, Joel embiid right now or Jeff Withey as a senior (last year)? I think I would go with Jeff for consistency but I think Joel may be a better offensive player. Def. has better moves!

Can't help but feel that was just a big relief win for us at Ok St. I think we all had this game circled on our calendar this year. I'm just trying to forget the second half, move on with the win, and hope we can get another few wins in us before we hit any type of mini-slump. While running the board all the way to the tournament would be nice, I think think that can also put pressure on a team. Is it ideal to lose a game just before the conference tournament, but after the team clinches the league? I would think so, but winning them all is always good, too! Didn't the '08 team attribute their renewed focus to a late loss in conference play?

AW3 was I think a top 50 recruit, maybe 56 just going from memory? At some point you'd expect a top 50 recruit with several years of experience to be better than the freshman stud correct? Wiggins, ok sure, maybe you won't get to surpass the raw talent of Wiggins just with experience. Oubre also seems like a pretty rare talent though, so you gotta think a red shirt would be in the cards if he stays. Still, I think if AW3 is to redshirt and stay at KU he's talented enough that eventually he'll be an option for this team. As we've seen, it can be a little rough at times when freshman, no matter how talented, are asked to run the team. Very excited for the next few years as we (hopefully) get to see guys like CF, Greene, Mason and Selden grow.

It was truly a relief to win these past two games. Going into ISU/OKst/Baylor next week, we really needed to get out to 2-0. I'm pretty excited about this ISU game, the crowd is going to be NUTS.

Also, slightly off topic but UNC and Ol' Roy are having a heck of a time this past year. Haven't they been getting some pretty great recruits over there?

It's been a good 22 hours now since this loss. I just hope the loss has the desired effect of humbling this team and centering them. I worry that a young team like this has a bit more of a juvenile outlook, and rightfully so, they're only 19 years old! We lost to a good SDSU and ended up still in the top 20 in many of the polls, and haven't been blown out by anyone yet. Could this loss at home, losing a historical winning streak, be enough to "break" these guys a little bit and get them more focused heading into conference play? I hope so.

I haven't kept as up to date as I'd like on these boards, but with our freshman problems, I can't help but be VERY excited for the upcoming years. While we may not have Wiggins or Embiid, having Greene/White/Frankamp/Ellis as upperclassmen is going to be the mix of talent + senior leadership that we need. Self squeezes so much out of his players. Last year Withey/EJ/Releford/Young were very experienced and almost made the final four. Can't wait to have that experience with more talent to boot and a few OAD's in the mix!

Also, while it's not a democracy, regarding the White/Greene/Frankamp dilemmma, my votes for Greene! I think he's got the greatest upside for us this year.

KenPom has some comparisons of players who have similar stats to Embiid, they are:

Similar: '12 Tony Mitchell (767), '08 Kevin Love (756), '11 Gorgui Dieng (744), '14 Noah Vonleh (737), '10 DeMarcus Cousins (734)

Interesting to note that Wiggins best match was '08 Kyle Singler

Really liked Lucas' interview, seems like he is a great personality to have on the team. Can't help but wonder if he'll see playing time during his career if Self continues to recruit more OAD's while we have Perry and Jamari in front of him already. I think Lucas would have found playing time if he had been around for 5 years during Self's tenure between 2004-2011 but I think we're getting more competitive at each spot. Perry will be around for a few more years as will Jamari who is only getting better as well. We also have Cliff coming in next year so Lucas may still be 5th on the depth chart. Assuming we don't drop off in recruiting, it may be the year Jamari and Perry graduate that Lucas has his best shot at moving up the depth chart.

He does have 3 more years to get better, and if he can earn playing time he'll be a fan favorite on the court!

While Embiid isn't starting, he's still getting pretty good minutes. Maybe this helps take the pressure off the big guy. Pyschologically I imagine it's very different to start then to come off the bench. Maybe it's part of the grooming process for a few more games. I bet Tarik starts for the upcoming away games and Embiid starts once we get back to Allen Fieldhouse in December.

I really hope Frankamp comes back next year with 20+ lbs of muscle, something like and Andrew White build! He looks so stickly out there compared to the other athletes. Greene does look more athletic out there. It'll be interesting to see who gets more minutes because both have diff. strengths/weaknesses.

I think Perry Ellis is our go to man in halfcourt offense, but when our offense is running the court on transition his offensive load diminished a little bit, which is all good in Lobrence, KS.

Not enough games being played, I hate waiting more than 3 days for the next game! Just subscribed to Kenpom.com and he's predicting the Jayhawks go 24-5 and OK state to beat us out by 1 game. This matchup is going to be amazing.

Anyone else think the starters lacked some energy at the opening of last nights game? Good thing Self has a full bench to unload when we get like that. It was really hard to watch the hawks on defense for parts of last night with Iona getting open on the perimeter or just hustling more for the rebound. Also, there were a couple of Iona's big guys that seemed to just drive into the lane at will- close the holes guys!

Wiggins reminds me a little bit of B-Mac in terms of his passive play sometimes. He just doesn't get the ball enough! Could it be that he needs to do more to get himself into position, off the ball? Seems like he's not always in the right spot at the right time, a couple of times I was hoping Mason would kick out to Wiggins but he had a man on him. Or perhaps we have too many other options on the team.. :) We clearly were putting up enough points last night, but I can't help think we can still squeeze more out of the big wig.

LOVED that Tharpe was so patient and didn't chuck up threes ad nauseum! Last year he seemed a little trigger happy but that dude has control this year! The first play of the game was beautiful, they must have passed it 10 times before Perry shot it.

Random- I'd rather us hold Towson to 39 points than to score 100 in the upcoming game.